In the latest, it came to light that the Indian board hadn’t paid the women’s cricketers their prize money for reaching the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, which was played in February-March 2020.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side produced a splendid performance in the showpiece event. They went unbeaten till the final before going down to eventual champions Australia in the title clash. They are due to receive a hefty sum of $500,000, which is issued by the International Cricket Council.
However, Kaur and co haven’t received their prize money. It was brought to the eyes of the world on the morning of the 23rd of May, and in no time, a senior board member from the BCCI clarified that the Indian women’s cricketers will be receiving their prize money this week.
“The members of the Indian women’s cricket team will be getting the share of their prize money by the end of this week. The transactions have been processed and I am expecting that they will receive their share very soon,”
the senior BCCI official was quoted saying by TOI.
The official stated that it’s not just this payment that is delayed. The central contract fees, international match fees, domestic fees for both men’s and women’s cricketers and everything else is taking time due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation in India.
The official also added that BCCI received the payment only late last year. Moreover, the official said that payments for the domestic season, which end in March, are cleared out only in September. Hence, he feels it is the same for both men and women, and the delay is only because of the bad situation of COVID-19 in India.
“We received the prize money amount late last year. It’s not just one payment for women.
Whether it’s the central contract of the men’s team, international match fees, domestic fees of men and women, everything is taking a bit of time because of the prevailing situation.
Even before the COVID situation worsened, the domestic season would end in March and the complete payments were only cleared by September.
So, in this case, you need to check when did BCCI receive the payments. If they received it just after the tournament, then it’s a delay but the processing does take some time.
And to the best of my knowledge, it’s the same for both men and women,”
the official added.